of it, and i am ok being in that space of people accusing me of being too thoughtful on this. i want to be too thoughtful and i think alaskans expect me to be thoughtful. and i am welcoming their opinions, their views, everybody comes at it with something they care about. there is a process ahead of me, and as you have noted, i am in the swirl because i haven't been pegged into either box. and i won't be pegged into a box, i'm going to do my own work on this and do what alaskans expect me to do, which is be thorough and thoughtful. announcer: as part of c-span's alaska weekend, here is an interview with alaska senator dan sullivan. he talks about the top issues in his state, as well as his support for supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh.

this is just over 20 minutes. sullivan ofan alaska, it is july. what is going on in alaska? everything isan: going on. i say there is no season where nothing is going on. in the summer, the vibrancy of the state, it really comes alive. our fishing communities are in full slang. -- in a full swing. we have the biggest salmon runs in the world. it is a big challenge every year. strong, othersin don't, so we have to watch for that. but the vibrancy of alaska -- we have a lot of tourists that come part the summer, but every of the year, it is a great part of the year in alaska. july has a lot of energy.

the midnight sun is out, and you get a sense of the vibrancy of our people, of the wildlife, and hopefully you guys are seeing it on the road trip. there, and congratulations on 25 years of doing this. there very glad you are on road in alaska seeing our wonderful state. >> it is alaska weekend on c-span. how did you get to alaska? sen. sullivan: my alaska story is pretty simple. i fell in love with the beautiful alaskan woman when i was the young man, and we decided to live in alaska. if you ever met my wife, you would understand why i hightailed it to alaska. very simple, and beautiful alaska native, a proud family. i have a great mother-in-law and father-in-law. after my first tour in the and i moved to

fairbanks, her hometown, and started our life there. we have three wonderful daughters and a great life in alaska. for me, it is simple. it was love. love for the state, but first and foremost love for my wife. >> you mentioned your service in the marines. you recently said alaska is very important when it comes to missile defense for the u.s.. sen. sullivan: i always like to talk about alaska constituting three pillars of america's military might. i am >> you necessity, i always like alaska about of tituting three pillars america's military might. i'm sure you've seen this on your road trip. cornerstone of the missile defense. that's important with rogue and es like north korea

iran. he major radar sites, ground ase missile interceptors at fort greeley. testing of the systems. the real systems, radar systems. we're building that up, very bipartisan support to build that up. first and foremost, we're at the cornerstone of missile defense. the hub in the arctic and pacific. air force f u.s. assets. fifth ave over 100 generation fighters, the f-35 and f-22s. we'll have over a hundred, f-35s of ng in the next couple years. there is no place on planet had those fighters. we'll have those because we're so strategically important and a expeditionary

forces. units, active duty serve units that can deploy on a moment's notice anywhere in the world. the first strike brigade up in fairbanks, the fourth brigade of infantry division. brigade team rne in the eastern pacific. they just got back from afghanistan. a couple of soldiers. sacrifice is still on-going. so those are the three pillars. a great and growing coast guard presence, down in just had alaska, and i an opportunity to bring ecretary mattis up to alaska recently. we were at the air force base, fort greeley. he saw it. if you saw the press conference, he gets it. gets cretary of defense how important alaska is, and i always say, we have three there is a fourth

pillar. we have the strongest support from the military in our community. the alaskan supports our military in ways i'm convinced state or communities do throughout the united states. vets per capital in alaska than any other state in country. it's the whole package. missile defense is part of it a growing part of it. >> we've had a military build-up on all three pillars and it will continue. senator sullivan, you've also talked about the fact that the pipeline, anwr, can diplomatic tool. >> one of the things that i would like to comment on is, you're unleashing american

energy, the production of merican energy, whether it's natural gas, whether it's oil, hether it's renewables, it's such a win-win-win-win for our certainly is for alaska. security. on energy certainly on jobs. certainly -- a lot of people try push back on this but on the environment. i was in charge of our nvironmental standards in alaska when i was the commissioner of natural resources, in the state, and i previously served in he bush administration under condoleezza rice as an assistant secretary of state in charge of economic, finance and energy issues, so i spent a lot of time in other parts of the world produce oil and gas, russia, saudi arabia, kazakhstan, brazil, i'll tell you this. fact.a there is no place on planet

earth that has higher standards, higher standards of producing energy than alaska. and so my pitch has always been you want to protect the global environment and you know to continue need to produce energy, we should choose the place that has the highest standards. places like russia, in the arctic, they don't give a darn about their environment. we do. come up to the north slope, prudo bay and you see the high standards. also in terms of foreign policy, a lot of discussion right now on vladimir putin, him and the back on russian regime. i'm fully supportive in pushing but i ery way possible like to share this story that's quite interesting. senator a meeting with mccain, as you know, he's uffering with some here's

health challenges, i ask everyone to keep them in the prayers. in a meeting about a year and a half ago with a senior russian dissident. we do in hat more can terms of policies? we've instituted sanctions, for to push back on the putin regime. he gave me an answer that i expecting. i don't think senator mccain was expecting either. the number one thing you can do america is to produce more american energy. why? ways,e, you know, in many putin regime is a gas station country, and as a when we're able to compete on provide rkets and allies of ours, whether in asia, source of europe, the reliable american energy and not blackmail that often comes with accepting russian energy, it benefits all allies, it benefits other back ons, and it pushes

the regime. we've undertaken policies where close to or exceeded russia and saudi arabia in oil production, atural gas production and the production of renewable energy. american t i call the energy renaissance. it's happening throughout the country and i think it benefits our conomy, it benefits workers, but most importantly benefits our foreign policy and national security. a huge proponent of responsible development of america's abundant energy in alaska, we have a lot of them. > how is the trump administration on these issues, in your view? administration strong.n really it's in connection with congress. i was asked about, again, i'm we should believes be putting as much pressure on the putin regime as possible, been, you know.

one of the most important ways we've done it and you're seeing is we're rebuilding in the military. thing, understands one it's real power. i agree that we should have administration officials talking the way in which we're acting, but at the end of the day the ctions are the things that speak the most loudly, let me couple of examples, spending 16, defense was cut by almost 25%. as threats to the united states started to dramatically increase the world, we were cutting defense spending. that's changed. we have very strong bipartisan support. in the press that a lot but, for example, the national defense authorization services on the arms committee, we're all very focused. emocrats and republicans, on increasing defense spending, including an initiative called ree assurance

initiative. that's 5 billion, sending our forces, soldiers, places like poland nd the baltics, with serious, you know, weapons systems and armor. hat's something that putin understands. another area that the trump administration has undertaken is, for example, in ukraine. ukraine arian have being asking for years for tanks to take them out. nothing they as had that could stop a russian tank. previous administration wouldn't bipartisan ite support. one of the first press conferences i actually articipated in was every senator on the armed services committee, democrat and 2015 said, we need to do this. et ukraine have weapons that they can defend themselves with.

the previous administration wouldn't do that. that.ary mattis has done ukrainians now have an anti-system called the javelin, a russian tank driver in eastern ukraine, you might be a little bit more now because that system can take out a t-72 tank. on energy, you know, in the congress, in the bill, we opened anwr for responsible exploration. you've probably seen that in alaska. that's something, that over 70% and st cans, democrats republicans, have been pushing for, for almost 40 years. and i lly got that done, want to do a shout out to all my fellow alaskans. people who have been working on that for decades. congressman young, the late great senator stevens. hundreds if not thousands of alaskans. bipartisan. we got that done. i think that will be good for country t good for the

for the reasons i talked about in terms of energy as an american power, to help our allies and push back gainst our adversaries and we're doing that, and, as i mentioned, the numbers of energy roduction, oil, gas, renewables, are hitting all time ighs, and are some of the top of any country in the world. that's good for alaska, and it's good for america and i think allies.d for our >> senator sullivan, in your view, has climate change alaska?d >> oh, absolutely. you see, you guys are probably seeing it. doubt climate change youappening in alaska, and, know, it's opening up opportunities that you see in arctic, but it's also pening up significant challenges. some of the roads you probably theel on, you're seeing how permafrost creates more dips in the roads he big area where we're seeing it is the receding sea ice in

that's opening up entire new areas of commerce and northwest ion, the passage in the summer is creating increased traffic. arguing that we need to do is we need more infrastructure in the arctic. ports.d more the military needs to have a stronger presence. to get g -- i'm trying the secretary of the navy up to alaska this summer. i was exchanging phone calls recently on doing that. so we're seeing that as an you know.part, alaska, america, i like to emind all of my senate colleagues here, we're an arctic nation. we're an arctic nation because a lot ka, and there is going on in the arctic. some of it is challenging. are opportunities as well, but we're certainly seeing climate change happening in the great state of alaska. you've seen some of the areas

impacting our fisheries, and at the issue of acid-ification. focusing on these things as a senator. > we're 3,014 miles from juneau, let alone the rest of the state. what's ou communicate, going on in alaska to others? >> it's a huge part of my job. it's a huge part of lisa's job. it's a huge part of don young's it, you know, i work closely, my staff works fellow literally with my congressional delegation members from alaska. ot even on a daily basis, almost an hourly basis but a big part of our job is talk about alaska. i mentioned, ke three pillars of america's ilitary might is based in alaska. how that helps the whole country. a lot about ag

alaska's fishing industry. i sit on the commerce committee. the subcommittee in charge of the coast guard, noaa, america's fisheries, i like to describe alaska as the super power of seafood. 60% of all the seafood harvested, commercial, subsistence, that, for the country, is alaskan harvested seafood, which is remarkable. billions.e and, of course, a lot of my that,w senators don't know but sometimes it's just the basic knowledge. to you was mentioning earlier, we have a tradition in the senate, every thursday, a host a lunchked to for his fellow senators. a month ago, it was my turn. i will acknowledge, and most senators, if they are telling would agree, that the senators kind of mark their senator when it's the from alaska, either myself or

cows ky.m salmon, halibut, reindeer sausage, i had just a ago. everybody really enjoys it but you get to brag about your state. in of the things that i did that lunch just a month ago, i not only talked about, which is, f course, a little bit difficult, it's difficult for my fellow texas senators to hear alaskan in half texas would be the third largest state in the country. size of /2 times the texas but we're also a continental-wide state, so what mean by that? if you actually super imposed 48 states, e lower you would have cities, for southeast alaska hitting in the area of northern florida, say, st. petersburg.

then barro, in the northern part f the state, would actually be north, the northern part of north dakota, almost into canada. alaska would be into texas and the rest of the of the, and then the end aleutian island chain would francisco. to san so literally, we're a state and i ide think sometimes senators don't recognize that. it creates some unique opportunities for it also for alaska but creates unique challenges, and so we're working to educate, we, i say, our congressional delegation, my senate even some of our olleagues in the house, on alaska, because sometimes there are certainly special things we need in federal law, and it's up to the three of us to get them. was a mentioned, anwr good example of this past

december. we were able to get that law years of trying. >> so flying becomes a way of life in alaska. > flying is a way of life, absolutely. almost 80% of our communities are not connected on the road system. yourselves, you guys had to barge up your bus up to juneau, then, you know, juneau through, you can't get out to of the state on a road from juneau. we're trying but we're not there yet. when you got to haines you got on the road system, and there is a lot of miles of roads, but, you know, a of people get around by boat because we don't have roads that connect so many of our communities, which again, is a challenge. like to say alaska is resource rich but infrastructure poor state, and our delegation is constantly, constantly trying to press the infrastructure

needs in federal legislation. we e making progress, but need to do more in that regard. finally, senator sullivan, kavanaugh, you used to work at appeals.court of >> i've known brett kavanaugh for a long time. e served in the bush administration together and i followed his career, a very impressive career. stayed in touch with him since i came to washington as a senator. know, i think he was an inspired choice. i've already come out and said i was going to support him. i actually had a very substantive meeting with him in last week, and what i like to tell my fellow we kans, is on issues that forly care about, you know, example, the authority and power f federal agencies, a lot of alaskans, myself included, we skepticism on providing too

much authority to federal agencies. as you guys have seen, 66% of state is owned by the federal government. ou often have federal agencies that push the envelope of his authority. judge kavanaugh has said, only l agencies can about when given authority by congress. that's just a basic correct proposition. he's been a leader on that he's strong second n amendment rights, which the vast majority of alaskans care deeply about. but he's also somebody who job iss that the judge's to interpret federal statutes and the constitution as written. to write newo them laws or to write new policies. that's up to congress, the senate. he's been a leader on that, so these are all areas where i alaskans certainly have strong views, similarly to judge kavanaugh.

and then finally, like i said, i know him. that, when you meet him that comes across is humility. true humility. and as you know, peter, that's you often cteristic find in washington, d.c., and, but i think it's actually an characteristic for a judge, in particular, and that comes across, he's a good family man. so we'll have a good -- i'm not on the judiciary committee but hearings but good i think he'll >> alaska's only u.s. congressman is republican don young in this conversation, he talked about alaska and his work in congress. this is 20 minutes. s republican young. he's the longest serving member of the house, and in this c-span, he with talked about alaska and his work in congress. this is 20 minutes. >> congressman don young, you're